Well, I think last year I did a little daily report on activities in the greatest of all Gencon cities (ok, the ONLY one I've been to), Indy.  It's after midnight as we wind it up here, and we already had a ton of fun.  The best part: my wife is sucked in, not by the gaming atmosphere (God No), but by the large suite, three spas in walking distance, connecting skywalk to the downtown mall, and the gym.  Yes, guys, it's possible to have your Gen Con fun while calling it a "vacation" and ACTUALLY GET AWAY WITH IT.  My wife actually said today "Maybe we can just do this every year for our vacation....."!!!!!        YES!  Of course dependent on me raking in $1000 or so selling my stuff at the Gen Con auction and store so maybe not....but it's great to watch her enjoy the great downtown scene her because it's exactly why I enjoyed it here last year myself. Lots of accessible restaurants and stores, and unlike a lot of big cities you feel pretty safe out there at night.

Oh, and just thought I'd let you know.....the new Colts stadium they built downtown?  They could fit TWO of them in Jerry Jones' Superdome he's building, so bite me Colts fans
  Well we rolled into town at about rush hour, and the car gas light went on as we both looked at each other, realizing we had forgotten to fill up since Missouri and were now riding on fumes. Luckily we were able to make the hotel (note to get gas first thing tomorrow or push the car to the convention center).  An aside here, the Embassy Suites is great, but we are already having our ass nickled and dimed to death as parking is $20 a day, and internet access $10 a day. At these prices, that's idiotic.  I've only paid for the parking two days (hoping to find alternate arrangements after that at  a downtown lot), and refuse to get molested on the internet fees (I'm typing this in the free business office in the hotel).  Yeh you get a free breakfast, and free booze in the evening, but still do they really need the ten bucks they charge for internet when it really costs them NOTHING to provide this service?
    Anyway although I talk to Al and Martin (Prufrock) today by phone, and will see them tomorrow (along with the entire gang at the Rathskeller dinner) the only Acaeum member I hook up with is Ryan (Smarmy), who not only is staying in the same hotel but on the same floor!  Looks like they put all the Acaeum members together because they know we'll be RAISING HELL soon enough....   Anyway, Ryan's roommate he's never met, who goes by the name "Hellchild", rides a Harley, and says anyone with less than 6 tattoos is a "Puss", hasn't arrived yet so good luck there Ryan.  
Anyway, we head to the mall and food court for a little food and sit down talk.  Funny thing here, as Acaeum members are known to do, we talk and talk until a security guard literally throws us out.....but officer the mall doesn't close until nine, and it's only 8:30?  Ooops, we forgot there IS a time change and Ryan and my watches are an hour off, it's 9:30 and we are trespassing.  Oh well.  Anyway, we wrap up the evening by picking up my wife and catching The Mummy III: Jet Li and a Bunch of Hot Asian Chicks at the downtown AMC which is connected to the mall downtown.  And on the walk home down Indy's streets at midnight, only one homeless bum and one spot of urination on the sidewalk, wow this city is ten times nicer than Dallas, what can I say!

All this fun and as yet not a die has been rolled, shrinkwrapped module bought, or beer sucked down.  Now just gotta get to sleep somehow because we have a big day ahead as everyone gets into town and it will be a melee until we meet up for dinner, with everyone heading in a 100 different directions.  I expect my cell will be ringing like crazy so I'm signing off Day One, wish everyone was here!

BTW anyone staying at the Embassy Suites (or not) we are in Room #1117 so come up and bring some money, I'm already running on fumes and the dang convention hasn't even started yet...

Mike B.

My wife and I are in staying in room #1102 in Embassy Suites.  A friend and I will be playing board/card games in the room for the next few hours.  If anyone is in the area, please feel free to stop by.

If anyone needs a lift to the Acaeum dinner tonight, I have room for two more in my car.

I am in Courtyard by Marriott room 302.  They must like me cause they gave a suite type room with a huge living room and TV.  See everyone in 30 at the Rathskeller.

I tried to post yesterday night but the internet here at the hotel went down and I lost a long post. I was too crushed to try again, so here is a recap of the Acaeum dinner and today's events:

My one goal today was to get all my 200+ items to the Gencon Auction and drop them off, they were already registerd so I didn't think this would be much of a problem. I will say the registering part was simple, but waiting for Troll and Toad to get their credit card machine working, and hauling the stuff in with no help from the employees, was a mess. For someone running such a large auction, it was shocking to see the confusion of the volunteers running around. Smarmy and I (very grateful to his help) had to park the car, empty it out on the sidewalk,then carry it up a set of stairs into the auction room by ourselves. No two or four wheelers were available, and the entire process seemed very seat of the pants.  Oh well it got done.

After I drove Lawrenson/Malcolm to a nearby Home Depot to get some shelving for his booth at the convention. WE talked about his collection of ST1's (he has brought two) and how he aquired them, and interesting tales of collecting.  Prufrock/Martin did airport duty, picking up KingofPain, Al and his daughter, and Brendon. Everyone got situated gettng ready for the dinner, it was nice to get and get the badges and such settled so I'd be ready to go Thursday morning.  Beats driving 15 hours and arriving feeling like hell like the year before!

The Acaeum dinner took place at a german restaurant, the Rathskeller, and pretty much a Murderer's Row of Acaeum members attended.  The guests of honor were Tim Kask and Frank Mentzer, who entertained us greatly with tales of yesteryear and recent happenings. Frank was his charming self and managed to spend a little time with each and every member there.  It would be almost futile to list everyone there but I'll try, as we had myself and my wife, Kingofpain (who downed half the restaurant's beers and got ugly, fighting drunk, such an embarrasment..), Smarmy, Adder from Aussie, Al and his beautiful young daughter, Prufrock, Blackmoor, his wife and his son, Stratochamp minus the family there to gloat and taunt us with pieces of his collection, Lawrenson and wife with friend from the UK, the Burntwire Bros; Contrarian, Increment, Net Rodent, and just who did I leave out? oh yeh and Frequent lurker and infrequent poster Mad Hermit made a guest appearance drunk out of his mind just to show us the dangers of drinking when you weigh only 95 lbs soaking wet.

The dinner was great, lots of talk about the convention and the city, my wife uttered the immortal words "When we come back here next year...." which warmed my soul (she's having a great time at the workout center, the downtown spas, and the mall, along with sightseeing).  Toasts were made to EGG and his presence and influence was acknowledged. Tim auctioned off a very, very limited copy of his room for Tower of Gygax (the only copy available not going to personal friends or those who will adventure in the room) and bidding was short but spirited, with Lawrenson winning the signed copy for $200...a great piece of ephemera for his collection.

While Wed had been spent getting everyone into town and getting ready for the big day, we awoke Thursday ready to rock and roll.  Of course five minutes outside my hotel my newly purchased duffel bag broke a strap and I had to get a makeshift repair. We hit the  Red Eye Cafe and despite our free pub we didnt see much of a crowd this day.  Smarmy, Adder, King and Al with daughter all watched me reprise my last year's feat of a bacon cheesburger (or the Badmike Special as it must now be advertised) for breakfast, but my heart wasn't in it as I couldn't finish.  Sad to get older I'm afraid....!

We got to the convention center early and with last year's knowledge found a side entrance that opened at the same time as the main entrance, and headed straight for Egor's and Goodman's games (within eyesight of each other).  There at Goodman's we found out purchases of the 1E limited edition modules was limited to two apiece, we managed to get several copies by having everyone buy two of each (including Al's daughter) but weill still have to hit it Friday if they aren't soldout.  I mostly wandered after getting my limit of Goodman stuff, as I really had trouble finding anything that resembled a deal.  Even the dicount dealers seemed to be charging way too much, I couldnt' find anything at Egor's although Brendon managed to come away with an extremely rare KODT #2, one of the self published issues, for almost nothing. WE contined to wander, I went to Lou Zocchi's booth (rumors are this is the last Gencon he's attending) and bought a load of dice for JohnGaunt who enjoys that sort of thing, and getting Lou's signature was the icing on the cake. I skipped up Troll and Toad's booth and stumbled on Troll Lord Games, and had a great conversation with Troll's Kim Hartsfield, Jason Alexander and others.  The Castle Zagyg stuff looked great and the TLG really had some cool looking product.  A couple of the guys got huge loads of stuff and King got to watch the booth babe's boob pop out of her chainmail bikini.

During the day we scattered and reformed and kept re-meeting at the auction hall. Deals were too numerous to mention, I did get a lot of nice cheap stuff, and a couple of times almost had something nice fall into our laps but was not to be (like when the auction guys almost accidentally put in a "Booty and the Beast" during a very slow part of the auction with about 20 people in the hall...would have been a very nice addition to my collection!!!)Again I saw a lot of problems in the auction setup and how it was run but stuff did seem to get done even if it ran a bit late.  Discussion was about the amazing amount of rares on display that were to be auctioned friday and Saturday night, including a DM Ghost Tower (Frank's copy), TWO Lost Tamoachans, a Fazzlewood, an orange B3, a Character Archaic, two EPT boxed sets,  a POTVQ, and some of Frank's manuscripts.  Some really great stuff, will be a real bloodbath this weekend in the hall.

There was a Jason Pipes sighting........

Anyway got to meet some guys I never had before, like Guido, Dbartman, and Rabbit, so we had fun. Found out I had already gotten halfway to my sale goals of paying for my hotel room with my auction and consignment money, and it was only day one.  But as I had run out of money anyway who cares, I'll be an interested observer the rest of the time.  My only great deal was finding a R4 on the dealer floor with the help of friends and immediately relisting it in the auction to turn it over (Flip My Module).  BTW Malcolm had a great setup on the floor and got rid of not one but TWO ST1s by the first day!!! His array of rares is mind blowing and you could kill a time looking through them!  His wife had brought a nice selection of card rares and between them they had some real clout on the dealer floor.

Well starting to fall asleep at the computer was hopefully tomorrow will be just as fun and can't wait to see what happens at the auction!

Mike B.

Same as above !!  Sounds like you guys are having a blast.  the updates mean that I can at least imagine being there.  Thanks!

A most interesting report Mike. Perhaps one day I could be there...

Yes, tell us more about the chainmail bikini girl boob

serleran wrote:If it was Ashley, then that was some incredible luck. She is a yummy booth babe. Also, a model for some of the C&C art, I believe.

Yes, specifically DB1 (Of which she had signed my copy)

ShaneG.

Badmike wrote:Sorry I didn't get ANY extra copies myself, although Aneoth and JohnGaunt I did get yours but that's it, Smarmy also got copies for everyone on his list I believe.  Looks like this is going to be collectible really, really quick!!!

Mike B.

Smarmy is my man!   Woo woo!

Again, great update!  Keep 'em coming!